Ranveer Singh's ’83 swims against the tide, to air on Star Gold before Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix

Star Gold recently announced the world television premiere of ’83, the Ranveer Singh starrer sports drama. It will be televised on Sunday, March 20, 2022. What is interesting here, is that the movie will have its TV premiere before being released on over-the-top (OTT) platforms.

According to media reports, ’83 will stream on OTT platforms, like Netflix and Disney+Hotstar, post its TV release.

Directed by Kabir Khan, ’83 was released in theatres on December 24, 2021. It was initially supposed to release in theatres back in April 2019. But its release was pushed several times due to COVID, as well as delays in filming due to casting and pre-production work.

’83 is based on the true story of the Indian cricket team, led by the legendary Kapil Dev, that went against all odds to win the 1983 World Cup at the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, UK. The team had won just one match in the preceding two World Cups.

Following the closure of theatres in mid-March 2020, due to COVID-induced lockdown, the filmmakers behind ’83 decided to wait for things to get back to normal before releasing it in theatres. They decided against taking the streaming route. Khan was reportedly of the opinion that the film had to be experienced on the big screen.

According to film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh, ’83 was released in 4,000-5,000 screens across the world. It is considered to be the ‘biggest release in India in the post-pandemic era’. The movie received critical acclaim. Singh was praised for his portrayal of Dev and Khan was praised for his direction.

As per Box Office India, the film had the second-highest opening (for a Hindi film) in 2021, collecting over Rs 12 crore. ‘Sooryavanshi’ leads the way, at over Rs 26 crore. The film clocked in about Rs 83 crore in its opening weekend.

However, it all went down after the first three days of its release, due to competition from movies like ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’. The sudden spike in COVID cases (Omicron variant), government restrictions and subsequent closure of theatres also added to the movie’s downward trend.

It must be mentioned that Allu Arjun starrer ‘Pushpa: The Rise’, which was released at the same time as ‘83’, will soon have its TV premiere on Disney Star channels like Star Maa, Star Suvarna, Star Vijay and Asianet. The movie was released on OTT platform Amazon Prime on January 7, 2022.

Uday Sodhi, senior partner at Kurate Digital Consulting (former business head, SonyLIV), says that the release of a movie on TV, OTT platforms or in theatres is determined by its genre, the commercial contracts done by the producers and also COVID protocols.

“The producers prefer to reach out to most audiences through mediums like theatre and TV. Then come the OTT platforms. This also makes sense commercially for most movies that appeal to mass audiences, like ’83,” adds Sodhi.

However, for some movies, like Shakun Batra’s ‘Gehraiyaan’ , this may not be true as its storyline was more niche, urban and youth-centric. Hence, it was released on digital platforms.

Sodhi believes that a mass-market film, like ‘83 will be best (commercially) exploited by theatre, TV and then OTT platforms, in that order.

As far as revenues go, satellite rights are a much larger source for the filmmakers than box office. Now, with the rise in the number of OTT players and the targeted reach they provide, there is another source of revenue for the filmmakers.

Is advertising revenue a good enough reason to take the TV-first route?

As per Paritosh Joshi, an independent media and communication consultant, ad revenue is substantially dependent on the type of movie. “There are many films, especially certain arthouse ones that may not even have a theatrical release and are directly released on OTT platforms.”

“However, ’83 is a movie that has got a lot of mainstream appeal and holds nostalgic value for a slightly older generation, who got to witness India winning the World Cup that year. This age group has a high affinity towards TV viewing,” adds Joshi.

He points out that the scale and reach of OTT platforms is still quite small, as compared to that of TV. And, with broadcast TV also giving the viewers a choice to watch a movie in their preferred language, it is a smart choice to take the TV-first route.

Karan Taurani, senior vice president - research analyst, Elara Capital, has a different take. “This is a one-off situation and, generally, with the kind of money that OTT is offering, most movies will take the (OTT) route.”

Since the pandemic struck, the theatre and OTT window for most movies has come down to four weeks, from eight weeks earlier. Despite this, ’83 chose to keep a bigger window (gap) between its theatrical and OTT release (eight weeks), adds Taurani.

“Earlier, the filmmakers used to see TV as a better medium, because of its mass reach. Now, the tables have turned, as OTT is growing at two to three times faster than TV. OTT also provides faster revenue growth,” he signs off.